How to Soundproof Tile Floor

Tile floors look great, but they present a few notable acoustic challenges. The good news is that various acoustic treatments work for tile floors. Soundproof Cow is here to help you understand why tile floors cause noise and how to treat them.

Understanding Sound’s Interaction With Floors

Sound energy interacts with tile floors in two forms — impact noise and airborne noise. Each type of interaction has a distinct outcome that calls for an acoustic solution to match.

Impact Noise and Tile Floors

Impact noise is the structural sound you hear when solid objects collide. A few examples are collisions between the floor and a person’s shoes, or from the legs of furniture when it moves. The collision with a heavy boot or a wooden chair’s legs causes the floor to vibrate, which anyone on the floor below will notice.

Vibrations move from the point of contact to any surface touching the floor, such as the subfloor, joists and the ceiling of the room below. A soft material could soften the impact and noise, but floor tiles are hard — vibrations travel through them easily.

Airborne Noise and Tile Floors

Airborne noise is a sound wave that travels through the air. Voices, television audio and music from a speaker are all examples of airborne noise. A sound wave moves through the air freely by vibrating air molecules. Dense substances can obstruct a sound wave’s airborne path. Some energy from a sound wave can pass through a solid substance, but the surface will also absorb and reflect energy.

Hard, flat surfaces like tile floors are powerful reflectors. Sound energy bounces off of the floors at an angle equal to that of its approach.

Tile floors can be the first point of reflection for a sound wave aimed toward them. Sound waves will also reflect off the floor tiles after bouncing off the walls or ceiling. Reflections result in echo or reverberation — in other words, noise.

Soundproofing Techniques for Tile Floors

Here are a few methods for soundproofing tiles and reducing their reflective qualities.

Soften the Floors From Underneath

Structural noise is most prominent when hard surfaces touch, so separate the tile floors from the hard subfloor and joists. When you use this method, called sound deadening, floor tiles vibrate against a soft material instead of another hard substance.

Tile floor underlayment is an effective sound dampening tool — place it between the subfloor and tile during installation to absorb vibrations from below. Impact Barrier QT Flooring Underlayment is one example of an effective vibration absorber. PROFLEX™ 90 underlayment is a similar material with a laminated membrane that offers the strength to support ceramic tiles.

Treat the Room’s Walls and Ceiling

Sound treatments on the walls and ceiling will help control the effects of airborne noise in a room with tile. When you place soft, absorptive materials in the path of common noise sources, the sound that reflects off of the walls and ceiling will be weaker when it reaches the tile. Similarly, the absorptive materials will reduce the sound energy the floors redirect to other surfaces.

Acoustic panels are excellent sound absorbers for interior walls. Some of the most effective sound absorption materials include:

• Glass mineral wool acoustic panels
• Udderly Quiet® Fabric Covered Foam panels
• Echo Absorber™ Acoustic Cotton
• Udderly Quiet® Acoustic Baffles

Browse Sound Treatments for Floors From Soundproof Cow

Sound deadening and absorbing materials are excellent for rooms with tile floors because they reduce structural transmission and minimize reflection. Soundproof Cow can tailor an acoustic solution to any tile floor, so request an acoustic analysis to discuss the possibilities!